This was among the earliest batch of Soviet cartoons I subtitled, way back in 2008. Back then (and until just a few years ago), only the Russian version was available. Seeing the Ukrainian version for the first time has been a bit of a revelation. It's like seeing the "full" version of the film for the first time, because the Russian version is simplified and a number of witty lines have been removed from the script.

For example, at the very beginning, the fish's "bubbling" is subtitled in the Ukrainian version, but left untranslated in the Russian one. Also, not a few later lines spoken by main character were removed. Despite this, I found the point of the film to be still almost as clear in the Russian version. Though some dialogue was removed, what happens is still the same.

And yet, I'm left a bit confused. Not by what was removed, but by why the film was allowed through at all.

So let's analyze who or what exactly is being satirized here. On Oleh Olifer's "Ukrainian animation" YouTube channel (where the 2022 restoration was posted), the description says: The film was created in the era of "Stagnation" and to some extent became a satire on this historical period. But I think that's only telling part of the story.

Who is the main character, at the start? Powerful, fat, lazy, indolent. In charge of a world of "little people" (fish) that mildly interest him, but for whom he does nothing, not even the most basic maintenance. Somehow (did it come in from elsewhere?), a real predator fish appears in the aquarium that eats every other fish.

He still does nothing. He feels utterly secure. His loyal cat, Vasya, is still by his side. In a line that was removed in the Russian version, he muses, "I'll say, 'look at that, Vasya! Just what exactly is going on here?!'". He is sure that will be the end of the matter, since everyone knows that cats eat fish.

Except that's not what happens here, and he then loses his last chance to save his only friend and himself through his utter cowardice and indecision.

Up to this point, does any of this sound like it's describing the pre-Revolutionary Russian Empire peasant population? No way, but it does describe the aristocracy. The "Whites". Those who reluctantly acceded to their new poverty after losing the Russian Civil War, kept their heads down, but to make themselves feel better would sometimes "protest" in a completely ineffective way.

Wasn't this film a bit of a call to that slice of the population to wake up, remember who they were, and realize that it's the whole system that needs overturning if they are ever to regain what they lost?

About a decade after this film (give or take), that's just what ended up happening (well, part of it). Another "castling" occurred, and the Whites ended up back in charge (or at least, their ideas and symbols were back in favour).

Did nobody in 1979 see the message? Or am I missing something?

In any case, I always thought it was brilliant film, though "The Tree and the Cat" (a very different sort of movie) is still my favourite by Sivokon.

Also, it's interesting to note that the animation was done entirely by Aleksandr Tatarskiy and Igor Kovalyov, who would later team up as directors. But not in Kiev - the studio management thought they were too young, and they had to move to Moscow to make their own films. That whole period is described in Tatarskiy's 1986 essay "Making Animation", which I translated in 2008.